A day of rest and a dead end

It was really cold in the room last night. For some reason it seems that our room is the only one that is bipolar. Every other room is warm, heck even the bathroom with the window that is never closed is warmer than our room. It made crawling out of bed a little difficult this morning.

Breakfast this morning was two pieces of toast, one with peanut spread and the other with Cadbery chocolate spread. I also had a bowl of applesauce and, yep you guessed it a glass of OJ. That stuff is a god send when everyone has some cold or another. I’m just happy that I got sick earlier in the trip and seem immune to whats going around now.

Classes started at 10 am today. With how cold it was last night, both Aimee and I took a short nap before Dr. Chapman’s classes. Today he talked about the intellectual contributions of one woman during the Victoria ear. Her name was Mary Somerville. In an age where it was thought that women shouldn’t know about science and mathematics she surprised the men in her knowledge on the subject. She published later in her life. He works include “mechanism of the Heavens“(1831) and “Connections of the Physical Science” (1834).

Dr. Chapman’s next lecture was entitled, “An ape for a grandparent.” Pretty much the idea that Darwin’s ideas about evolution being scandalous is all myth. Chapman pointed out many men who were high members of the church who were starting to put the puzzle together long before Darwin was born. The ArchBishop James Ussher had been trying to find the historical dates of biblical events such as Soloman’s temple, Abraham and the parting of the red sea. On accident he suggested that the date of creation was 4004 B.C. Robert Hook suggested that the earth was older than that when he started looking at an ancient seabed. This gave way to the Increment theory and a bunch of other scientific theories before Darwin came onto the scene. What Darwin did was rewrite the theories of those who came before him and filled in the gaps. The hype about his Origins of a species came from the “great debate” was really only four lines in the paper that spoke about how Dr. Samuel Wilberforce insulted Thomas Henry Huxley.

This lecture ran a little longer than most of us would have hoped. Lunch was carrots with a spicy meat mixture with rice. I cleaned my plate. You never have to worry that we aren’t be fed here, its just the fact that we are all so happy to be eating good food that we eat it all.

I had a little time after lunch before my next class. There had been something bothering me every time I would walk into a church in this country. One of my aunts had tracked my grandmother’s line back to a man named Philip Marc who lived 1180 to 1230. This man had been appointed by the king to be the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and the Royal Forests in 1208. Yes he matches the time frame of Robin Hood, No he didn’t directly oppose Robin Hood that was a fictitious story made up years later. But I digress, I managed to catch Dr. Chapman before he headed out for the day. I asked him what would have happened to the bodies that were interred in the Lenton Priory after the dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. Dr. Chapman said that the bodies would have been exhumed and then reburied somewhere else. That helped a little.

Every time I’ve stepped in a church here I’ve felt a little sad that there is no place to visit this ancestor. I find myself wondering if he had been under a slab in the floor or if he had been under an effigy against the wall. All that is left of the Priory is a pillar in a fenced in area of the City of Lenton. I spent my remaining time trying to catch a lead as to where Philip Marc may have been moved to. This my be a lost battle. If he was hated by the people as the Robin Hood stories depict, whose to say his name wasn’t scratched out; or if he was an anonymous skeleton in a mass grave, there would be no way to find his remains. I can’t help but feel a little mad at a long dead king for snuffing a piece of family history. I wonder if others feel this way when they are seeking for links to their past and its been destroyed? The search will continue I suppose.

My last class of the day was my women novelists class. Today we talked about Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell. I didn’t feel so stupid after this class, I actually spoke up and even asked a question once class was over. We talked about the sexual double standard for men and women that Gaskell was commenting in Ruth. Emma (the teacher) asked if we thought Ruth was a figure to be pitied because she had been taken advantage of because she was so naive and childlike or if she should have been scorned by society because she was a fallen woman. I fell on the side of pity. I still don’t like Mr. Bellingham for many reasons, but I don’t feel like ranting about that now.

After class I came back upstairs and crashed. The hour or so nap was a good thing. Sleep and OJ seem to stave off colds, even if the room is cold. Both Aimee and I napped after class. Our plans for today had been to visit the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin to take in the view of the city, stop by the Alice in Wonderland shop and a University gift shop as well. Those things will either be bumped to tomorrow or Friday.

Dinner tonight was a fish sandwich and french fries. So, fish and chips? After dinner I went to Tesco with two other girls to get chocolate and other munchies. The food is good and healthy here, but there are times that a girl just needs junk food. Tonight was one of those nights. I picked up a bag of cookies to share with Aimee, a pack of bounty bars, granola bars and four alcoholic drinks in a can to try. I figured this would be cheaper than going out to the pubs and a good way to try things out.

When I got back to Wycliffe I got to Facetime my mom. Its been a couple days since I talked to her. She gave me a tour of the Florida house her and her sisters are staying at for a girls trip. If I hadn’t been on this trip, I could have gone along on this trip, now that I was old enough. I get to go on the next one, right mom? It was good to talk to her and I almost can’t wait to go home to the states and see her in person… Hmm, I do believe this is the first case of homesickness I’ve had this whole trip. Ten days left in the trip, not to shabby for not being homesick.

Got one last thing to say before I call it a night. Aimee got the heater working! We won’t be cold tonight. THANK YOU AIMEE! can you tell how happy I am about this? Night all.